Ed Root Memorial 10K Recap

Last Saturday, I ran a local 10K. Seeing as how it was only a week after my marathon, I was a little apprehensive about running this race. However, it is a local race and it runs along one of my favorite and most frequently used running routes so I felt like I had to do it. My legs felt fine, so why not?

I get there bright and early and immediately curse the 40 degree morning. Hey, us Floridians aren't used to this crap!
Anyways, after packet pickup I huddled in my car until about 15 minutes to start. I walked the block to the start line and then started jogging loops around the block to keep warm. I did this until about 2 minutes to start and it worked great!

The buzzer sounded and we were off! I had never raced this distance before, so I was a bit unsure of how to pace myself. I set a 7:30 pace from the start and decided to hold there and see how it goes.

The course runs along side the ocean, across a 1.5 mile boardwalk loop and then back to the start. Here is a view from the boardwalk: 

Nothing too exciting happened for the first 4 miles. I kept right around a 7:30 pace and was feeling great. 

Around mile 4 is when I saw two younger looking guys ahead of me, so I increased the pace and passed one of them within half a mile. Then about .2 miles ahead of me, I saw the other dude and he wasn’t as easy to catch. I sped up to around a 7:00 pace and was about 10 feet behind him by the 5th mile marker.

I stayed there for about half a mile and noticed he was slowing down. He had an ipod so I don’t think he heard me behind him waiting to make my move.

So around mile 5.5 I made my move and passed him. At first he let me get some distance on him, but then I guess he noticed I was around his age and he also sped up. I increased the pace to 6:20-6:30 and managed to keep him about 30-40 feet behind me.

At mile 6 I saw he was gaining and maybe 15 feet behind me, so I gave it all I had and went full  on sprint. Reviewing my Garmin, I did mile 6-6.1 at a 5:30 pace and I guess that made him give up because I ended up finishing 13 seconds ahead of him.

When results were posted, he was indeed in my AG and my effort got me a 2nd place finish (out of 6 in AG) and he was relegated to 3rd :)

Final time: 46:10 (PR!)
Place: 2/6 in AG, 32/162 overall
Splits: 7:24, 7:35, 7:32, 7:33, 7:26, 7:00, 6:23 (.25)

I like the award too....